Dump-car-door-raising mechanism.



F. S. INGOLDSBY. DUMP CAR DOOR RAISING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAY], 19w.

Patented Aug. 13, 1918 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

MIX/ 52% F. S. INGOLDSBY.

DUMPCAR DOOR RAISING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 7. I911.

Patented Aug. 13', 1918.

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To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that l[, FRANK S. lnoonoser, a citizen of the United States, residing in West Bloomfield township, in the county of @akland and @tate of Michigan, have invented a certain new land useful lmprovement in Dump Gar Door Raising ltfechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings.

The important general object of this invention is to save metal to be conserved in peace as well as in war-and incidentally to make a stronger and lighter mechanism.

The present invention although useful in many other ways is concerned particularly with the construction and method of making door-closing devices for dump cars.

Dump cars having doors in the bottom are frequently constructed with floor beai'nsextending outwardly to the sides of the car and there provided with suitable securing and locking means. Such doors are hinged to drop downwardly to release the load. As a means for lraising such. doors it has been found that a rock shaft having a series of axially alined bearings with odset crank portions engaging the doors and operated rom one end of the shaft, provides a simple,

effective device for raising all of the doors at one side of the car simultaneously.

My invention is hereinafter more fully described as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and the essential characteristics are summarized in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of the door-raising member assembled and shown in the position with the doors.

closed, the car to which this is attached, being diagrammatically illustrated in dot and dash lines; Fig. 2 is a transverse section through one side of the lower portion of a car, illustrating the doors in closed position, and showing the relative position of my door'closing member; Fig. 3 is an elevation, on an enlarged scale, of a crank section of my door raising member; Fig. i is a side elevation of a bearing and adjacent crank sections, illustrating the method of assembling the same; Fig. 5 is aplan of the bearing block andadjacent crank sections, shown in Fig. 4t; Figfli is a transverse section, taken on the line 6-45 of Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is a similar view after the parts have been fitted longitudinal sill of a car extending to the end sills 2 and 3, and to which are hinged doors, d, carried on floor beams 5 pivoted at 6 to the central sill member. 'lhese floor beams are shown as'having upwardly ex.-

tending hooks at their outer ends as at "f, for engagement with suitable supporting and locking means which may draw up on the end of the floor beam and thus tightly close the door and cdectively support it independently of the raising mechanism. 'lhus all of the doors on one side of the car may be brought to their horizontal or closed po sition, or be allowed to drop downwardly to a suitable angle permitting material within the car to fall freely over the same.

Between the adjacent doors are cross beams 8, at the under side of which may be mounted longitudinally and axially alined bearings 10 for my ofiset raising shaft. l l ithin each of these bearings 10 is journaled a bearing block, the bloclc 12 at the end sill 2 being extended and provided with a suitable raising means, such for erample, as a strong substantial sprocket wheel 18 actuated by a chain ll, which may connectwith any suitable mechanism for moving the shaft through an arc of a number of degrees sufficient to accomplish the raising and lower-- ing of the doors.

The journal blocks are preferably short cylindrical blocks having a length less than the distance between adjacent edges of the doors. Beginning at the power actuated end of the raising shaft, the journal blocks l2, l5 and the next one or two, may be made of a comparatively large size, say, for example, three inches in diameter, while the remaining blocks 16, l'l', eta, farther from the actuating end, may be made somewhat smaller, for example, two and one half inches, and

the last journal block 18 may be still smaller if desired.

Urdinarily the offset portions of such a shaft would be provided by bending a shaft of the same diameter throughout into a series of tl-shaped loops. However, this is both till Elli

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' ings. of two journal blocks. Here they may be suitably tightly secured in place, preferably welded by the acetylene welding process.

Referring particularly to Figs. 6 and 7, the numeral 22 indicates the end member of the crank. arm thrust through the block leaving a slight projecting end at 23, while 23 in Fig: 7 indicates the same end after the welding has taken place. shaped members when placed in position, all lie in substantially the same radial plane with relation to the axis of the bearings 10. Thus, by rotating the actuating means at the end of the shaft, as by actuating the sprocket and chain, the shaft may be caused to swing through an arc, raising it from the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2 to that shown in solid lines, bringing the door tightly to its closed position.

In such raising as well as in the lowering movement, considerable friction is incidental to the contact with the doors. To eliminate this friction it is customary to. provide rollers 30 suitably positioned on the transverse section 20 of'the offset arm and adapted to engage the under side of the door. Where these rollers are used on a continuously bent bar they require special arrangements and considerable work to put them on, whereas by means of my bar bent in sections simple rollers can easily be applied. These rollers may be positioned to properly accommodate the doors by the simplest means, such for example, as cotter pins, indicated at 32. The rollers are put on the straight tubular section before it is bent, and may be held in a central position thereon by cotter pins to gacilitate the process of bending as shown in i 8.

The die member 40 has a cavity 43 to clear the rollers just touching the periphery of the same at one side While a roove embraces the pipe, and this die is adapted to extend into the female portion of the member 42 bringing the rollers to a similar cavity 44 and also causing the pipe to fit into the groove 46, thus giving it the: shape indicated in Fig. 3. A suitable stop indicated at 47 may serve to quickly position the tubular section in the dies.

After forming the tubular section with the rollers in the middle it is only necessary to withdraw the cotter pins 45 and position These U- the wheels asindicated in Fig. 3 and there retain them by the cotter pins 32 extending through previously drilled holes.

It will be seen from the foregoing description that my method of constructing such tubular crank sections and fitting them to the torsion journal members is strong, light and simple and may be conveniently carried out. This method of construction also provides for conveniently graduating the torsion members to make them progressively smaller from the driving end to the other end. It is also apparent that these tubes are subjected to more strain adjacent the driving end than at the other end, and accordingly, while I prefer to make the tubes of the same external diameter, I may use tubes having thicker walls at the places requiring the greater strength.

Accordingly, to use the language of the present inventor, who has made an extensive study of this art and the opportunities for improvements therein The bent tubes and journals can all be made proportional to the strains which come upon them, hence this form of device will have the maximum strength combined with the minimum weight, and thus it will help to answer President Wilsons call for saving in our supplies and resources, which are now made doubly costly by the lamentable catastrophe of a World at war.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. The combination with a series of hinged members, of a closing device therefor comprising a torsional rock shaft having offset sections adapted to engage the hinged members, the rock shaft having an enlarged journal block transmitting the torsion between the offset sections.

2. The combination with a series of hinged members and a closing device comprising a series of journaled members and connecting ofi'set portions engaging the hinged members, the journaled portions between the offset sections being larger in diameter than the offset rock shaft thus formed for actuating the same, the journals being progressively lighter in weight from the actuating end of the other end.

- 3. A rock shaft closing device for a series of hinged members comprising a series of axially alined journal blocks, laterally extending crank sections connecting the same,

means connected with one of the journal blocks for rotating the shaft, the journal blocks being successively smaller in diameter, the largest diameter of block being at the actuating point.

4. A closing; device for a series of hinged members comprising a series of alined journal blocks, ofl'set crank sections connecting adjacent blocks, said sections being tubular and the end portions of adjacent sections extending into openings in one of said journalblocks, and means for actuating the offset rock shaft thus formed.

5. A device for closing a series of hinged members consisting of a series of alined journal blocks, said blocks having transverse openings, crank sections having substantially parallel end portions and a connecting span, the end portions being fitted into the openings and rigidly secured.

6. The combination with a dump car having a center sill and cross beams extending therefrom, dumping doors between the cross beams, and a door closing device consisting of a series of alined journal blocks, journal boxes therefor secured to the cross beams, the blocks being of such length that the doors may swing past the same, U-shaped connecting sections rigid at each end with the adjacent journal blocks and offset with relation to the axis of said blocks, said ofiset sect-ions extending from the blocks in substantially the same plane, and means for rocking the offset shaft thus formed.

7. A device for closing a series of hinged members consisting of a rock shaft having ofl'set portions engaging the members and alined connecting ournal blocks. the blocks having cavities to which the sections are fitted and rigidly secured, rollers adapted to be placed on the sections before bending the same and adapted to engage the. member when assembled. 1

.8. A dump car door closing device consisting of a plurality of axially alined journal blocks adapted to be secured to the car frame adjacent the doors, but out of the paths'thereof, a U-shaped tubular section having its opposite ends fitted into transverse openings in adjacentjjournal blocks and adapted to engage a door, there being several of such sections throughout the car, the journal blocks providing sufiicient torsion to swing the U-shaped section while the journal block at one end of the shaft is provided with a connecting member for rocking the shaft.

9. The combination of a plurality of hinged members, a torsional rock shaft for operating the same and having an offset section for each hinged member, the offset portions being'made by crank sections and the torsional part consisting of a block to which the ends of the adjacentcrank sections are firmly atlixed and which has throughout the torsional part a cross section materially greater than that of a crank sect-ion.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto afiix my signature;

FRANK S. INGOLDSBY. 

